Seeking the Elements of Stillness

This was the town I was born in, and it’s where I lived for the first 26 years of my life. It was a small seaside town with fields spreading across the landscape, but there was nothing particularly distinctive about it. Back then, I didn’t have any special feelings for the town. It was just a place to carry out my daily activities, repeatedly and aimlessly. It has been 17 years since I left this town. When I went back to visit for the first time in a long time, the town, which used to have nothing, had changed. Paths had appeared out of nowhere. New roads and houses had been built, and many people had moved there. I was a little surprised. I had never expected this town to change. However, I noticed that a certain element of stillness remained. The town, in a sense, was just the way it used to be. I realized then that, in fact, I had cultivated a variety of things from these fields, and this town, of “nothing." In my current life, I no longer see things the way I used to. Now, I am seeking subconsciously what I left behind in this small town—a town I had once lived in and taken for granted.